Recently, the WHSRN Hemispheric Council voted unanimously to approve the designation of the Área de Conservación Ambiental Estuario de Virrilá (Piura, Peru) as a site of Regional Importance within the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN). The site regularly holds over 20,000 shorebirds, and is home to over 1% of the biogeographic populations of Snowy Plover Charadrius nivosus (subspecies occidentalis), Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus (Pacific coast population) and Sanderling Calidris alba. Of particular note is the importance of the site for Snowy Plover, a globally Near Threatened species, with the occidentalis subspecies restricted to the Pacific coast from southern Ecuador to central Chile.
The Área de Conservación Ambiental Estuario de Virrilá (or Virrilá Estuary Environmental Conservation Area) lies at what used to be the mouth of the Piura River. However, at present the river does not reach the sea, and thus the estuary is dependent on tidal waters from Sechura Bay, an area of exceptional biological richness located in the transition zone between the Peruvian Current (cold waters) and the Equatorial Current (warm waters). The estuary is characterized by extensive beaches of sand and mud, shallow water, salt pans with halophytic vegetation, and coastal desert and Algarrobo (Prosopis pallida) scrub-forest in the near surroundings.
Sanderlings (Calidris alba) at Estuario de Virrilá. Photo: Frank Suárez.
The WHSRN site covers a total of 14,000 ha, and since 13 November 2015 has been recognized as an Área de Conservación Ambiental (ACA – Environmental Conservation Area) by the Provincial Municipality of Sechura. The Municipality is responsible for the administration and management of the ACA and co-manages it with the San Martín de Sechura Local Community, which has an ancestral right to the land. Both the Provincial Municipality and the ACA Management Committee, as well as the San Martín de Sechura Local Community have expressed their commitment and support for the conservation of shorebirds and their habitats in the area.
In addition to its importance for shorebirds, the Estuario de Virrilá has been recognized as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area primarily due to the large numbers of waterbirds it supports, including counts of over 50,000 Franklin’s Gull (Leucophaeus pipixcan). It also supports populations of two globally threatened bird species, Peruvian Tern (Sternula lorata) and Rufous Flycatcher (Myiarchus semirufus), and is a feeding area for the threatened species of threatened Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas).
Estuario de Virrilá. Photo: Frank Suárez.
A significant potential threat to the Virrilá Estuary are various concessions for mining of non-metallic minerals that have also been established close to the estuary. Fortunately, the company with the concession which has the greatest overlap with the estuary, Cementos Pacasmayo S.A., has excluded the area from its scope of its operations, and expressed support for the conservation of the estuary, and forms part of the ACA Management Committee.
With respect to Virrilá’s designation as a WHSRN site, Alexander More, Director of Naturaleza y Cultura-Internacional Perú (Nature and Culture International Peru) said, “This recognition adds even more value to this site to conserve shorebirds and biodiversity in the north of Peru. Commitments have already been made on the part of the municipality, the community, international cooperation, and private businesses to protect the Estuario de Virrilá, but we need to continue adding allies and resources to strengthen this model of wetland management in Peru.”
Frank Suárez of Naturaleza y Cultura Internacional Perú receives the official designation from Rob Clay and Diego Luna Quevedo of WHSRN.
Some of the early efforts to conserve the Estuario de Virrilá for shorebirds and to nominate it as a WHSRN site were made possible through the “Linking Communities: Wetlands and Migratory Birds” initiative, one of the longest running and most successful approaches to building support for the conservation of WHSRN sites at a flyway scale. More recent surveys were undertaken as part of the innovative “Coastal Shorebird Census” which led to the development of a Peruvian Shorebird Atlas.
With the addition of the Área de Conservación Ambiental Estuario de Virrilá, there are now 101 WHSRN Sites in 15 countries covering a total of nearly 36.8 million acres (14.9 million hectares) of shorebird habitat across the Americas. The Estuario de Virrilá joins two other sites in Peru, the Reserva Nacional de Paracas (one of the very first WHSRN sites in South America), and Manglares de San Pedro Vice (close to the Virrilá Estuary, at the northern end of Sechura Bay).
